Classes

Nonfiction

  • Term: Fall 2022
  • Start Date: November 19, 2022
  • End Date: November 19, 2022
  • Day of Week: Saturday
  • Time: 10:00am - 1:00pm PT
  • Level: Open to all levels
  • Audience: Adult
  • Location: In Person
  • Availability: Yes
  • Public Price: $90.00
  • Member Price: $81.00

Learn About Scholarships

Building Characters from Real Life

Characters breathe life into a story, turning an abstract idea into a vivid representation of human experience. In nonfiction, writers build characters from the raw and messy material of real life. In this class, we’ll talk about techniques for rendering yourself and others as characters through scenes, dialog, and telling details. We’ll explore strategies from nonfiction, memoir, and journalism for researching and digging deeply into the thoughts, habits, manners, quirks, and substance of your characters.

FLASH SALE HAPPENING NOW: $10.00 off immediately applied at check out!

Registration dates:

August 22: Scholarship Donation Day (Learn more.)

August 23: Member registration opens

August 30: General registration opens

Madeline Ostrander

Madeline Ostrander

she/her

Madeline Ostrander is an environmental journalist, nonfiction writer, and author of At Home on an Unruly Planet. The former senior editor of YES! Magazine, her work has appeared in the NewYorker.com, The Nation, Sierra Magazine, and numerous other outlets.